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Who is OhCaptain?

Originally, I did just the one blog. Now I have 3. The most important thing in my life is my family. But I do have some hobbies that I do fill my time with. I love poker...playing poker, reading about poker and watching poker on TV. But there is also photography. I need to find more opportunities to mix the two!
As you will find, I'm also very opinionated...I'm a libertarian (by definition, not affiliated with the Party...they are a bit cooky!)

Thursday, March 27, 2008

I wish I could claim I sold my account to someone else and they sucked. But that would be a lie.

I played the Mookie last night like some drunken teenager popping the strap on his first date's bra. Only I didn't figure out that clasp was in the front.

Made almost a buyin in 19 hands at a cash game, granted, FTP doesn't offer lower stakes than the table I was sitting at, but that's not the point. The point is, I sat down at the Mookie and threw two years of poker experience out the window and played the game like an idiot. Who really tries the min-raise bluff? This moron.

Sorry to say, I was pretty embarrassed and grateful that my laptop was not happy either. If it wasn't for laptop technical issues, I might just have thrown up on the date creating a legend of Biblical proportions. Julius - I think my hands from last night could be used for the video companion to Stupid/System.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Yes, I'm running bad. The weekend has been fueled by bad beats and sick calls.

After my tilt fueled post from EXTREMELY early Saturday morning, I've played a wee bit more poker. It would appear I lied in my Mookie profile. I think I am a masochist.

After dropping 3 buyins on Friday night (thankfully after winning one). I took the day time portion of Saturday off. The girls and I went shopping for Wii stuff. Toys-r-us was running a sale, buy 1 game, get $20 off the second. Mario Galaxy and Smash Bros. Brawl are now in the line-up. We beat the poop out of each other all afternoon. Mom didn't seem to approve of a fighting game though, but thankfully, life has thrown her a bout of digestive disorder. Back to the fighting when she runs to the can!

Still a bit tilty from the night before, I figured I try to deposit some funds on other sites. I've been playing Full Tilt exclusively for cash. I'd never made a deposit elsewhere.

I first tried Bodog. I'd really like to try the Bodonkey but unfortunately, it doesn't matter how many play chips I have, they won't let me in! Taking another bad beat, all of my credit cards rejected the transaction. Damn you UIGEA! Until something changes, it would appear there is NO Bodonkey in my future. Ugg.

Over to Poker Stars I go! I always forget that I have the beginnings of the Ferguson Challenge over there. PS seems to have the easiest freerolls on the planet. I've played 3 of them cashed twice for a grand total of $2 in my bankroll! Of course, I've never used the money, but I remember someone writing about how easy eChecks were so I figured I'd give it a try. Within in a matter of minutes a crisp C note is sitting in PS just waiting for action, but whats this? Hold the phone! Its a new freeroll promotion!

I realized just how tilted I was so I decided to opt for the freeroll and risk nothing but my already fragile psyche. It would appear I value my mental health less than money...go figure.

I signed up for the tournament and sat in amazement as 5,062 suckers volunteered for a little S&M action on a Saturday night.

I played this tournament like I've played all the freerolls on Poker Stars. Large pocket pair, get as much money in the middle as possible. Anything strong but not AA or KK, call and see the flop, if you hit hard, bet hard. Everything else, play cheap. This worked pretty well again. Within an hour, we were in the money. Granted, it was a $1.20, but that's still a pretty sweet ROI...TripJax, you manage money people...making a $1.20 on an investment of $0.00 is a good return?

Well at the money bubble, I was sitting there with an M of about 30. Sweet! Avoid risk and cash! Having avoided all risk for a while, and seeing no cards that would resemble a risk inspirer, I folded to about the $3 level. I shoved them all in 78o. Why would I choose that hand? Very simple. I was the BB. The blinds were 2000/4000 with a 200 ante and I had 5000 in chips. Seemed like a perfectly reasonable assumption that I might not see a better hand with far fewer chips on the next hand. But hey! I made a $3 profit on an investment of $0.00. Common you math whizzes! What's the ROI on that?

So I made a deposit on PS AND cashed in the freeroll in the same evening...coincidence? I think not!

I played a couple of $1.20 SNGs. I really don't like the UI and I really miss the "Last Hand" feature and my bet Min, Pot and Max buttons. This will take some getting used to. Oh, and I lost both of those SNGs. Kind of funny, I lost both of them with KK. I run g00t?

Woke up this morning, refreshed and invigorated having made such a deep showing in a large MTT. Figured there was no stopping me in a $1.25 45 person sng on FTP. Well, lets examine the damage.

AA - lost 70% of my stack to JT0. Couldn't resist the pot size raise and of course hits the 2 pair.

KK - lost twice once to 77. The money went all on the turn. The first 4 cards were Q8AA. 77 HAS to be good. In my defense, I was on the button. I raised Pot from the button with 2 limpers already in. Bet half the pot on the flop. Got 1 caller. Bet pot on the turn, Villain pushes. I really figured that if I was beat it was either AQ or AA. All other hands would have already been going crazy. Called saw the 77, chucked and then watch as I was full tilted on the river with a 7. Chat window fills with the Villain typing...Sucker. KK lost the other hand by running into T7o. A flopped flush draw was more than he could hand, my flopped set of kings was dead to 4 clubs.

AK - Lost with it 3 times. Pot size raises were all called by various suited and unsuited connectors all of which hit various things bigger than my flopped top pair top kicker.

AJ - Flop comes AT5, two spades. Some shoving occurs. The villain in this hand had over played many hands. Sure enough, AJ vs A2...500 play chips for anyone that can guess the river. Oh, money was all in on the turn, after which a 9 had come.

I'm just about ready to give up on the top ten hands. QT was a great hand for a BB special and tripled me up. Ducks even flopped a set to triple me up. Its just too bad that I had to have a premium hand in the middle of each to set me back to crippled.

How do you get through periods of running really bad? Do you keep playing? Do you take time off? Do you fire up Guitar Hero III and play til your fingers bleed?

This weekend, I've also been evaluating the Beta version of Poker Tracker 3. It's been pretty obvious to me that Poker Tracker 2 is pretty much gear towards cash game players. Since I'm obviously not one of those players, its been a good tool for record keeping, but not much else. This new version is in beta, and has a long way to go. There are many features that are missing or don't work. I do really like the graphs and reports, but many of those aren't done yet either. I think this will be a post soon. Just wondering if anyone else has tried it.

For those of you keeping track of these things...Happy Easter. Easter Bunny was good the kids here. Many giggles filling our heads today. Off to Grandma's House for more Easter Egg Madness!

Saturday, March 22, 2008

I have some words of advice for all you aspiring poker players out there. If you see me approaching a ring game at Full Tilt Poker, your luck is about to change. If you are in the pot against me, you will hit every card you've ever needed. And for a bonus! I'll hit just enough to call every one of your value bets on the river.

I just finished what could be described as one of the most frustrating cash game session ever.

According to Poker Tracker, for the month of March. I've played 424 hands. My AA won the blinds, I was BB. Now that that's out of the way, the luckboxry continues. Of the 2 times I got KK, it ran into AA once. It has a winning percentage of 50%. This is so sweet!

Each time I flopped top two pair, the only other player in the hand either flopped an under set, or could easily hit their flush by the turn. I never improve.

I saw the flop 3 times and hit a full house. The full house held up at show down a whopping 33% of the time. I was 1 for 3 with full houses. I should hold out for a better hand.

I got quads once, that was cool. No one else had a hand. I got the BB. He folded to my min raise on the river. Frickin' Awesome!

I did get to 3 of a kind 3 times. All 3 times it went to show down, it lost. I better wait for a better spot.

My biggest leak appears to be 2 pair. It only wins 8% of the time. Which is not surprisingly worse than if I play a pair to the river. It wins 9% of the time.

I did appear to be the loosest guy at the tables. My VP$IP is 20%. Easily the loosest guy at the micro stakes.

I need to ask, should I be considering ditching a full house a third of the time? Over the course of 7 hours, is it normal to only be dealt cards that hit a flush 5 times? (Everyone that plays me can hit them at will) How often should a suited ace actually see cards of that suit on the flop? Or even pair the ace? Is it actually possible to win money at a cash game? Could I possible be the unluckiest cash game player to ever live?

Monday, March 17, 2008

1. Tell you why I am friends with you.2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, a word etc.3. Tell you something I like about you.4. Tell you a memory I have of you.5. Ask something I’ve always wanted to know about you.6. In return, you must post this to your own journal/blog.

I played a ring game tonight. Its true. I swore off ring games a while ago. I just couldn't keep giving back to the poker community what I was taking out of the Mookie.

I had about an hour to kill. The kids were playing on the computer and the Mrs was off to bingo. Yes, bingo. The woman that not even two weeks ago finished 7th in the Mookie. Anyways, that's not why I'm here. I'm here cause I had an hour to kill and went looking for some poker to play.

I didn't have a long to play, about 45 minutes before the kids needed to be in bed and about an hour and a half before the $1 $26 Token Frenzy (gonna try it for the first time..more later), man am I easily distracted. So back to killing time...I went through my list of people to see if they are online and I found Julius Goat playing the .05/.10 NLHE. Figured I'd sit down and see how fast I could lose $10.

Well...45 minutes later, I had $16.40 sitting in front of me and I didn't rebuy once! W00t! W00t!

I did discover one thing about this game. No sense of humor.

Before I go...what kind of token tournaments do you people play? I'm trying this $1 Token Frenzy and I got to say, so far, people are pretty sucky at this thing. 350 people gone in little less than 1 hour...and only 453 people entered this thing. It ain't over yet! More later!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

The March gathering of the Bourbonators was last night. 10 runners showed up for good whiskey, and good times. I believe the theme for the conversation can be summed up by one thing: truck stop hookers.

A gathering of this many married geeks can only lead to so many conversations. Once we run out of jokes about bad programming practices and make fun of illogical operators, the conversation usually turns to truck stop hookers. What else?

Another month past and the lady's of the diesel jungle didn't show up, but some how, cards were dealt and booze was consumed.

The first SNG we played was fun. I somehow doubled up with pocket queens on a board that had an ace and a king. No one calling my raises either preflop or on the flop had one. Weird. I didn't even have a set. Just a pair of queens. This gave me enough chips to just coast for a long while.

I was actually feeling a bit tilty all night. Work-tilt was getting to me. Not that there was anything wrong at work, we had just been dealing with a serious situation all day and I found it very difficult to de-stress before the cards were in the air. Spending 9 hours straight trying to solve a big problem and running into nothing but security problems all day can leave you a bit on edge at the end. And when the TSHs didn't show...

I played a little small ball, but mostly just stayed super tight. This somehow gave me the chip lead after the bubble and I just stayed there. Nothing tricky, nothing fancy, just pushing hard with good cards and folding bad ones.

The second SNG seemed to start a bit later than normal. I was getting really tired. The guy hosting had just bought this house and all the paint was fresh. I'm not sure, but I think that really contributed to my itchy, uncomfortable eyes. Oh, and the exhaustion...I was really friggin tired by this point.

I folded every hand from the beginning to about level 5. Yep, folded every one.

We lost Darrin with an I on the very first hand. Flush on flush. I'd prefer to watch a little girl on girl, but again, they didn't show up. Not long after, we had lost the second one. The second SNG always seems to start very loose. Thus, I chose to play the opposite.

The first had I played, I moved all in. I had 5 BBs and just didn't feel like waiting to put the rest in. A limper or two were in the pot, so it seemed appropriate. The very next hand, I had A7(?)c. I was still getting comments about having folded for the entire tournament and figured I might just try it again. This time, I didn't push and held back a little. I got one caller. I paired my bottom card on the flop, we get them all in. I was really tired by this point. He turns of KK. Sweet! The Ace on the River sealed his fate. Oops. I actually got lucky! What a cool feeling.

With a fresh infusion of chips, I went back to folding. We got to the bubble and that's where everything in my head finally mixed and ignited. On the bubble, the BB was all-in for less than the LB. UTG had called and the button folded. After calling the minimum, I only had 3900 left in chips. The blinds were 500/1000, not exactly the stack I want at this stage, but with AJ in the hole and no chance for a raise, I gamble and see the flop. I miss, but the UTG player puts out 3900. I lost my temper and said somethings I wish I hadn't, but my read was, he was pushing me off the pot cause he figured I didn't hit. It was all low cards with 2 spades. I really figured him for 2 spades. But in tournament poker, you can only hope that people won't fire at a dry side pot. I laid it down, but not before acting a bit like a jackass. He turns over AK spades. He had the nut flush draw. Of course the turn and river were both jacks, no spades. Ace high held. I'm sorry for saying somethings that were inappropriate. Two hands later, I pushed the 3900 all in with AK. The BB called with KT. Of course, the 10 came. I go home a bit buzzed, really tired, and a few dollars richer.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Besides the complete lack of time, a little poker tilt mitigation has been going on. For a moment there I realized that the only poker I was making money on was my weekly trip to the Mookie. Weird, huh?

I didn't even play the Mookie last night. A lot of lifetilt and even more exhaustion made me think I could save the $11 for another day. There was no way I could go deep enough not just piss it away.

In poker's place, I had replaced the time with Guitar Hero III on the Wii. In the words of John Lennon, "I've got blisters on me fingers!" Three and a half hours logged on Sunday alone and man was that FUN!!! Drizz and Bodie25, seriously...bring it on over the wi-fi. You got tilt, GHIII has the cure. Anyone else out there interested in hooking for a little axe play...let me know!

Tuesday night is normally the night for free poker at Brother's Bar and Grill. Bodie25 and I opted for another option her in the Med City. We journeyed to T N D Billiards for some free poker action. This is a weekly event run by Big Doc. We've played some of his events in the past. He does a good job of running them, although after playing there just one night, I don't think I'll go back there again for cards. It was simply some of the worst poker I have ever seen.

The first hand of the night, I get the button and deal the cards. UGT opens for a 3X raise. Every player at the table calls. Well, I didn't. I have thing about playing A9o in a family pot with a table full of people I have never played before. It's just asking for trouble. That many people in the pot, I figured someone else had an ace too. The flop comes A2A. The UTG player raises again and thins the field down to 5 players. See, somebody out there has got a hand. The turn and the river both get checked...huh? Somebody most be slow playing a monster! The last 5 players turn the over...and the winner is??? King high. You've got to be shitting me. King high???? No one actually had a hand. King high was in actuality K7o. He was sitting in UTG+1. I think we see where this game is going. Look ma! I've got two cards!

I folded every hand for the next hour and half. In that time, I only get two more aces, no kings, no suited connectors, and one pocket pair (3s). I really figured the only way to win a pot was to show it down. There might have been 3 hands in that hour and half that DIDN'T show down.

Amazingly, it folds to me. I squeeze 44. I raise it up. The first sign of life from me in an hour and half. I got one caller. The guy on my left. The flop comes Q63. I put out a pot size bet. Oh, the original raise, it was 1/3 of my stack and half of his. OK, this flop doesn't look all that good. Sure, he could have a queen, but I'm REALLY bored and sick of looking at crappy cards and bad play. I put it all in on the river. I never improved my 44. I turned to him and asked, "Do you have a real hand this time?" He said, "Yeah, I started with a pretty big hand." He tables 66. Yep, a pretty big hand is 66. I try to play it against the tightest player in the room as often as I can.

IGH - Guess I'm still looking for live poker in the area I don't have to drive far to get to. Anyone want to build a new casino and card room here in Southern MN? I'll attend regularly...I promise!

Sunday, March 9, 2008

If it wasn't for my family, I'd probably live, breath, sleep and eat poker. My DVR has been told it should record anything with the letters p, o, k, e and r in the subject.

It is true, I watch every episode of Poker After Dark on NBC. Most weeks, I watch as major tournament and cash game players totally demonstrate how NOT to play a 6 handed SNG. Its really funny, in my opinion, watch as cash game players stink up the joint. Jamie Gold...I'd love to meet him in a SNG. He'd hate the constant folding followed by the shove. The folding would be more than he could handle.

This week however, the SNG strategy wasn't that well demonstrated, but International Week gave us some of the absolutely best reads you can ever witness.

If you've never seen PAD before, the final show of the week is called "The Director's Cut." It is basically the best hands of the week played back with the commentary of the players. This show just capped off the information you are missing from the mental gymnastics the players used to play their hands.

***Spoiler Alert***

The first amazing hand pits Daniel and Johnny in a hand. Johnny with A5 and Daniel with 44. The hand plays out as you would expect. Each player making an interest move not really doing anything totally crazy. On the turn, Daniel hits the straight, but the river brings Johnny the full house. Johnny bet $7000 on the river. Daniel goes into "play back the hand" mode as only Daniel can do. He verbally explains how he puts Johnny on hand. He gets it done puts Johnny on the only hand he can, a full house and he mucks! He mucks the straight. I really doubt there are many of us that could lay down the made straight.

Later, in the match, you watch as Johnny Chan returns the favor and dodges a made flush of Daniel and lays down his pocket jacks. Watching these guys play, make you realize, just how far your game needs to go before you can play with the big dogs.

PatrikAntonious is said to be one of the worlds best poker players. He sits like a statue and appears to think through every move, every card and every bet. In a hand with John Juanda, he shows off this skill but its not enough to keep John in the hand. He mucks to the nuts. Watching the directors cut, John explains his moves. You see, he had flopped a set of Jacks. Nothing to sneeze at, but by the river, Patrik has hit Broadway.

The only let down of the show is the last hand. A night of fantastic reads ends heads up with Johnny Chan calling the BB with AA only to find Patrik raising and dying with pocket kings. Now that's cold.

Watching these master talk themselves through these hands was inspiring to watch. Listening to their logical patterns can only help make us better players. The lesson to learn is to that rebuilding the hand from the beginning is essential to being a better player. Knowing when a straight is no good and learning to muck is what separates many of us from the pros we watch...oh...and the bankroll. I'm sure they have a bigger bankroll.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

I just don't know where all the time goes! Holy crap, I just don't know how I got this busy.

I'm watching OhCountess play the Mookie right now. She's 2nd in chips at the second break. That's my wife, suckas!

Go get'm girl! Corn Vegas! I'm there!

Last night, I returned yet again to the free poker at Brother's. Bodie25 and I were seated at the same table. This is the first time we've spent any time at the same table in a long time. We also had some real questionable players at the table.

As much as I love to get AA in a tournament, I got them twice in the first hour. Not the best time. No one was into gambling yet so it was like pulling teeth to get any money with them. The one thing it did give me was fear of being hot by other players. I took advantage of that I took some pot that no one wanted.

Last night I focused on playing situations. In one particular hand, the blinds were at 300/600. I opened in MP for 1800 with 66. I got 2 callers. The flop comes JJ2. The BB checks. Now, by the reaction of the button caller, I was pretty sure, this flop missed him. The BB is the type of player to bet the set and I'd seriously doubt he'd be in the pot with a 2. I moved all in for my last 1000 and every one folds. Almost a triple up and I never showed my hand.

Dang, my wife is about to cash in the mookie!

Well, the night moved on in free poker land. I kept playing position, taking small pots. I watched Bodie25 bust out when the blind squirrels kept finding nuts. And basically folded my way to the final table.

Something that really sucks about bar league poker is the blind structure at the final table. 300/600, 400/800, 500/1000, 1000/2000. This starts getting really stupid. After this, the blinds go up by 1000 for a while. You go from 20 BB to nothing in a very short period of time and the ShoveFest begins.

There were no cherries in the window of my slot machine and I busted in 6th place. For those of you scoring at home, AQo was the hand I was holding when I pushed my 7000 chips in. With blinds of 2000/4000 - ATo was the favorite to win the hand. Friggin' hand of the devil, I tell you.

The wife is still playing in the mookie. She's solidly in the top 4!

So my Mookie tonight was well, disappointing. Surflexus raised his short stack into my button. I reraised with AJ only to find the LB shoving everything in the middle. Unfortunately for me, it was for a wee bit more than my raise. Surf folds, and I call. KK vs. AJ...no love.

Wow...my wife made the final table in the Mookie. In fact, at this moment, she's in the final 8 and 2nd in chips.

So, tonight'sMookie tonight has been the fun of watching the Mrs play so well! Go honey! This is pretty cool. I just told the guys at BDR...lots of chuckles.

Our family warm up for this here mookie? We finally beat Santana - Black Magic Woman on the Guitar III. Here's something totally funny. My wife, OhCountess, is totally into GH3. We've been playing it quite regularly in Co-op mode. Fun times! Santana had been kicking our butts, but tonight, we broke on through and finally ROCKED!

Monday, March 3, 2008

Thanks Kaja for the cool meme. I had to wait until I could get back to work, this is where I listen to music the most.

Instructions: Open up your iTunes and fill out this survey, no matter how embarrassing the responses might be.

How many songs total: 18,661How many hours or days of music: 53.5 DaysMost recently played: The Thin Ice - Pink FloydMost played: Spirits in the Material World - The PoliceMost recently added: Where Are You Tonight (Journey Through Dark Heat) - Bob Dylan

Sort by song title:First Song: The A-Team Theme Song - [Not sure how that got in here]Last Song: 99% - Soul Asylum [gotta love a good MN band!]

Sunday, March 2, 2008

For those of you reading this through a reader, please stop by and look around my new pad. I had the blog made over by NapWarden. I was pretty tired of the standard template I was using.Check out her little efforts at giving make-overs to the rest of the internet at NW Designs.

This is the second blog of mine she's redone. My other blog, we did a few months ago. She easy to work with and loves what she does! Give her a call if you're sick of the look of your blog!

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Wow! Thanks to everyone that came last night! We had the biggest turn out in the history of our basement!!!

26 runners ponied up $10 for 6th Co-ed Invitational. We even had a guest poker blogger show up making this, as far as I know, the single largest gathering of Rochester poker bloggers in blogging history. Besides yours truly, PokerFool and Bodie25 rounded out this gathering.

Hopes were high going into this even. My track record had been quite impressive. I had final tabled all previous tournaments. As a good host, I've never won my own tournament. Is that what good hosts do?

I only own 2 poker tables. So with the help of a Bourbonator that couldn't make it, we packed everyone in.

The tournament management software set everyone to a table. Interestingly, each blogger was on a different table. The only hope for a blogger up against a blogger was if we could final table together.

The first table I played at had a mix of newbies and experienced players. Not so fun was the fact that some how, the standard opening raise in early/middle position was for 6X the BB.I was a bit disoriented by this. Continuing on my stretch of being pretty well card dead, I missed some opportunities to win some big pots because I chose to play this a little tight.

On hand in particular I chose to fold from the CO had UTG raising to 150, MP raiser to 500, a call and me looking at KQh in the CO. Sure, I would have had a full house, but my goodness! That's a lot of chips for so early in the tournament.

I did survive to the collapse of the 3 tables to 2. But not much longer. I sent ATo into KJh and lost to a pair of jacks. The insta-call with KJ was a bit of surprise, I figured I'd run into a big hand.

PokerFool busted before me, but the fun was had in watching Bodie25 play some fantastic poker and looks to be returning to his form of old. He played his game up until go heads up with the winner, being the last player to go busto.

I've included some pictures of the night. Some of these were taken by Rian, the wife of a fellow Bourbonator.

This final picture is of our winner. Posing with OhCountess for the money presentation. Congrats to the Winner Bonnie!I played the cash game for the rest of the night, while continuing the duties of the tournament director. My software crashed and I lost the whole tournament. That absolutely sucked. The cash game, on the other hand, did recoup my loss in the tournament. Yes, OhCaptain made money on the cash game.